4,000th U.S. soldier in Iraq
Posted: Monday, March 24th, 2008 2:37 pmThe number of US troops to die in Iraq since the invasion began five years ago hit 4,000 last night after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four soldiers. …
A US military spokesman played down the significance of the 4,000th death, which followed a day of bombings and rocket fire across the country that killed at least 60 Iraqis and left many more wounded. …
As well as 4,000 dead, at least 29,000 US servicemen and women have been injured in the Iraq war, which entered its sixth year last week, according to the independent Web site www.icasualties.org. Underscoring the brutality of an insurgency that flared in the aftermath of the invasion, the majority of American casualties occurred after George Bush announced the end of “major combat” in Iraq on May 1, 2003. …
The 1,000th US soldier to die was in September 2004, in the midst of a presidential election that returned Mr Bush to office for a second term.
The toll climbed to 2,000 in October 2005 as Sunni Arab insurgents battled to oust the Iraqi Government, and 3,000 in December 2006, before the US President unveiled a plan to send 30,000 more troops to Iraq to quell violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and displaced millions more. … Read full story
